The Huntsville TimesLeo Thorsness of Madison, who was a POW with John McCain in Vietnam, led the effort to bring a Medal of Honor winners gathering to Huntsville. (The Huntsville Times/al.com)

Leo Thorsness is a Medal of Honor recipient for "conspicuous gallantry" as an F-105 pilot in Vietnam. Thorsness was in a North Vietnamese prison for six years. He sent this letter to fellow POWs, following Tuesday's presidential election. Thorsness now lives in Madison, AL.

Leo Thorsness to fellow POWs:

The election 11-6-12 night mirrored, only more successfully, what the North Vietnamese tried on us: Divide and Conquer. Even in solitary, thanks to the tap code, we communicated which allowed us to organize. In that harsh environment, we stood tall even as they bent us. We continued to fight for the America we knew was the pillar of personal freedom, as the example to the world that free enterprise, hard work, honesty and playing by the rules lifts all citizens.

The Obama machine proved that divide and conquer can work - well enough to fool enough people into giving him four more years. The Obama machine successfully bought votes by taking tax money from workers and giving it to non-workers, by dividing rich against poor, ethnic race against race, young women against church, wall street against main street, and employees against employers.

If you can't run on your own record, run down anyone who is a threat by distortion and lies, and build up your own record by using flip side distortion and lies. In Obama's case, the liberal media loved his Progressivism and never held him to the truth of his claims, even on Benghazi.

Our economy cannot possibly grow enough to pay off our trillions of debt dollars that Obama's Progressivism is creating. Either default or inflation is inevitable. The fed will not default; it will print more and more money. Eventually we will have significant inflation - the cruelest hidden tax. If America stays this course, in a few years our destiny will be European Socialism. Never in history has Socialism been a successful lasting government. "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." Alexis de Tocqueville.

Obama's vision of America is not the America you and I fought for, and which many friends died for. At our POW average age, it would be easy to sit on the porch during our last few years, and enjoy our retirement and grandkids. That is not our character however. We were willing to put our lives on the line in combat and in prison. Age does not change character. I believe we should continue fighting for the country we knew and loved when we wore a uniform.

As youth, we learn facts, data and information. As we matured we weave that into knowledge on how to do our jobs and, hopefully, become productive citizens. Wisdom is the last step in education. As Socrates, Cicero and Dante wrote, wisdom comes in two ways: meditation or suffering. Wisdom is an education for freedom. Contemporary Americans lack the ability and the time to mediate. Most don't truly suffer. With few exceptions, Americans are stuck at their knowledge level. We POWs, however, had the time to meditate, and surely we suffered.

We are too old to strap on an airplane to defend our country, but we are not too old to use our wisdom to defend our county. Maybe it is time, and we have the time, to sit back and ponder, to meditate on how we can best use our wisdom to maintain our personal freedom in America. One way that comes to mind right away - we put pen to paper and words to speeches to share our wisdom.

May God give us the motivation, time and energy to use our wisdom to help the America we love to help her continue as a free society for our kids, grandkids, and beyond.

Some of you will disagree. I understand, but hopefully we can disagree agreeably.

Agree or not, may we all take time to meditate how to help the America for which we fought so hard.